Sportsmanship is one of them. In today's society there is a lot of emphasis placed on winning, and that's fine. American society has always been competitive, and the more we can teach our kids about coming out on top, the better they will do in life.
The problem is that some people tend to take things too far. Winning should never take precedence over the game itself, and it should definitely not take precedence over the respect we show our opponents.
In the first chapter of the excellent text, Let's Kill 'Em: Understanding and Controlling Violence in Sports, the author, Jon Leizman quotes a Sports Illustrated article, "Way Out of Control," in which the writer, Jack McCallum, comments on a friend of his taking his son to a ball game:
"Jeez, Dad,' the boy said, "I hope we see one today. I've never seen one."
"A homer?" The dad asked.
'No, a brawl." (P.1)
It's sad, but we can take that story even further and think of the number of kids today that have seen brawls-- and think they are acceptable.
Sportsmanship is something you need to work on every single day, just like stance and start, and tackling and blocking. Remember that your players go home and turn on the television, where they see things like Bill Romanowski putting a teammate in the hospital during a practice-field fight, Terrel Owens and his celebratory antics, and of course they can see the actions of Randy Moss, like his disgraceful stunt at Lambeau Field on January 9th, 2005. For those of my readers who missed it, Randy pantomimed dropping his pants and "mooning" the crowd, for which he was fined the princely sum of $5,000.
(It's no wonder the NFL can't keep a handle on their players. I don't think any other cross-section of American society with a population of 1,600 members would have as many flat-out criminals. Randy Moss's behavior has always been contemptible, and the fines have been equally as pathetic: $10,000 for squirting water on an official. $25,000 for a vehicular assault charge that was dropped to a misdemeanor when Moss intentionally knocked down a meter maid with his SUV. Remember that Moss's last contract in Minnesota signed him for $3.8 million a year.)
Your players will probably see at least one example of poor class and sportsmanship in every single game they watch during the 2007 NFL season. If it's not wide receivers screeching at officials for not getting a pass interference penalty when blanketed by coverage (or defensive backs complaining about flags they drew while covering those wide receivers), then it will be an excessive touchdown celebration or chest-thumping demonstration after a routine tackle.
These displays have only one purpose, to humiliate the opponent. I'll be blunt: it really asses me off that I have to spend my practice time every season carefully UN-teaching the things my players see on television.
But it has to be done, and you need to do it, too.
We start during the first days of practice, with a discussion of proper behavior during the coaches' introduction. We go on with an actual full discussion of sportsmanship on day two at the end of practice. During this discussion we also specifically warn the players that we will be testing them, and to be ready for it.
Periodically we reinforce things with a drill I stole from John Torres (formerly of Manteca, California) and Rich Scott (Who is still in Manteca.) called the Walk-Away Drill. Briefly put, pull one of your players aside and give him instructions to pick a fight with another player at some point during the practice. It should be completely verbal, but have him get in someone's face and be loud about it. (It works best if he picks the fight with a friend. A pretend fight can escalate to a real one and screw up this whole drill-- plus maybe even get you sued!) During the chalk talk we actually demonstrate this by having a coach start screaming at another coach who has to walk away.
Here's what your players should see: during a normal tackling drill, Billy gets taken to the ground too hard by Bobby, and leaps to his feet, yelling offensively. (With older kids, it's all right to have a little profanity during this drill, but I'd bring it up to the parents in the preseason so they understand what you're trying to do as well as how it will be done.)
Stop the drill at this point, when all eyes are on on Billy's antics, and reinforce exactly what he is to do.
I'll spell it out in three steps.
1) Smile.
2) Turn around.
3) Walk back to the huddle.
It's that simple. Run this at least once in the preseason, and probably once a month after that. It's sad, but there are also some teams out there that you're going to play that like to talk trash. If you know one of them is on your schedule, then you should probably run this drill the week prior to that game. (For example, if you're going to play a team coached by "Snoop Dogg" you should probably run this drill about every ten minutes during the preceding week.)
But wait, there's more! Sportsmanship is more than just learning to walk away from a fight. Being a good coach involves actively promoting sportsmanship in your players.
Here's one idea I got from the outstanding coaches and players of King's Academy High School in Northern California. After each game the players of this Christian school gather with their opponents at midfield in a giant circle, alternating each King's Academy player with an opponent. The coaches meet in the middle, and, King's Academy being a Christian school, everyone prays.
Now, I'm not here to tell you that you need to suddenly find Jesus (I didn't even know he was missing.), but this is a great idea for reinforcing sportsmanship!
I have taken this remarkable idea and added my own spin on it: what if we were to do precisely the same thing, but instead of praying (which is by no means a bad thing) just thank our opponents for being there? Wouldn't that stick in our players' heads? Wouldn't they remember that for the rest of their lives?
There are other things you can do to reinforce sportsmanship that aren't quite the production. Little things are just as important. For example, when your players score a touchdown, instead of a funky dance, or excessive screaming, just have them turn and thank their offensive linemen. Not only does this reinforce the idea of not taunting our opponent, but it also helps support the importance of the offensive line.
The final thing I'd like to bring up is the idea of backing down on the number of individual awards given out. I've seen helmets so covered with stickers that I'm surprised the players can hold their heads up above their pads. While this is cool, and makes them feel like a "big-time" player, it also tends to reinforce an "I'm better than you," attitude. I don't take this dislike of individual awards to absolute extremes, though. A speaker at a recent coaching clinic I attended commented that youth coaches should never keep individual statistics. I completely disagree with this idea. The players love seeing their stats, and they are a very important troubleshooting and encouragement aid.
There are only two individual awards that I give out. The first is the BLACK LION. I encourage you to visit the link and sign your team up for this program. The second is the Hardest Working Lineman of the week, which is an award given to the laziest running back we have. (Okay, I said that just to see if you were paying attention.) We actually get together as a coaching staff once a week before the first game and vote on the hardest working lineman in the program.
In my experience, the the more players work as a team, the less individual taunting they exhibit, and the more sportsmanship they display. This is because sportsmanship, class, and character are part of a culture. Unfortunately, so are trash-talking, taunting, and showboating. Your job as a coach is to create, reinforce, and maintain the right culture.
Sportsmanship doesn't just happen. If you don't actively encourage your players to treat the game and their opponents with respect, the miserable examples they have on television will do it for them.
And that's exactly what we don't want to teach.
If you're looking for further information on developing character and sportsmanship in your players, here are some books to look for:
Positive Coaching by Jim Thomson (ISBN: 1-886346-00-3)
Coaching for Character by Craig Clifford and Randolph M. Feezell (ISBN: 0-88011-512-2)
Let's Kill 'Em by Jon Leizman (ISBN: 0-7618-1378-0)
~D.
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